Quick Brexit plan: Theresa May’s team on fast track to ditch Brussels

Ministers were preparing the ground for rapid negotiations on new agreements with around a dozen countries to meet their timetable for leaving the European bloc in the early months of 2019.

Tory Cabinet minister David Davis, the newly-appointed EU Exit Secretary, said: “We’re talking to large numbers of people who all want to help and we’ll get a very, very large trade area, much bigger than the European Union, probably ten times the size.”

Countries queuing up to trade with Britain outside the EU were through to include Australia, the US, New Zealand, India, Mexico, South Korea and Iceland.